Safe, orderly, and convenient storage of outdoor equipment, for example ladders and garden hoses and the like, is sometimes difficult to find. Fences can provide real estate to hang such items. Often also, fences provide a suitable structure on which to display or hang potted plants. Hangers for storing articles are particularly designed for chain-link style fences because of the popularity of chain-link fences and because the chain-link fence provide numerous options for hangers to be supported.
See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,817, incorporated herein by reference, which teaches a hanger, particularly adapted to connect or attach items to a chain link fence, includes a central hub portion which is preferably spherically shaped and three arms which extend outwardly therefrom. Two of the arms extend to the sides and are bent rearwardly terminating in ball-shaped cams. The third arm extends upwardly and has its free end bent forwardly and also terminating in a ball. The hanger is attached to a fence by feeding the end of the third leg under one of the diagonally extending fence wires and then snapping the balls at the ends of the other two arms around the outer edges of the two spaced apart fence wires that are perpendicular to the first wire. With the hanger in place, a variety of different articles can be suspended from a hook or other type of support mounted on the central hub portion.
However, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,817 hanger relies on the chain links for support, and thus heavier objects can not effectively be stored by these hangers.
Another example of a hanger designed for use with chain link fences is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,911, incorporated herein by reference. Like the '817 patent, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,911 hanger relies on the chain links themselves for mechanical support, and thus is not useful to hang heavier objects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,412, incorporated herein by reference, relies on the top rail of a fence, including chain link fences for support of an article holder. In particular, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,412 teaches a wood or plastic base or back structure that is hung from the top rail of the fence by two large rafter-type hooks. A ladder hook is then mounted to the face of the base or back structure to support the ladder. Other applications are envisioned as well such as hanging hoses, potted plants, gardening tools and supplies, pool tools or toys, and the like.
However, the article holder of the '412 patent is a relatively complicated structure, may itself be heavy if constructed of wood, and does not provide any allowance for engaging vertical posts on the fence, which would provide greater stability. While the article holder of the '412 patent can support items other than ladders by way of the ladder hook, some items are more suited to be held by structures other than a ladder hook, and this is not provided for.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus supported on a fence for holding articles, which is light-weight, can be easily adapted to support a variety of objects with a variety of hanging mechanisms, and is of simple construction.